The Evening Star. FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 1870.

Auckland Star, Volume I, Issue 89, 22 April 1870, Page 2

The Evening Star. FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 1870.

Before the City Board at its last meeting and the Chamber of Commerce j^esterday, a subject was introduced, which, if properly considered, would cause no small apprehension in the city. In the Albert Barracks, in the immediate neighbourhood of our most crowded thoroughfare, and in the centre of a city of twenty thousand people, there is a magazine containing as many tons of gunpowder as would be sufficient by explosion to lay this city in ruins. Without one solitary guard to shield it from recklessness cr accident, this volcano has been slumbering in our midst; while it is well known that even where the utmost precautions that human foresight can devise have been taken, magazines and arsenals have disappeared without leaving one to tell the cause of the explosion. To some it may appear that the blowing up of the magazine in the Albert Barracks would be limited in its effects to its immediate neighborhood ; but the record of such accidents in England and America is conclusive, that if such catastrophe occurred, both from the direct effect of the explosion, and, mainly, from the rebound of the atmosphere, the greater portion of our buildings would inevitably be laid in ruins. That such a state of things should have continued for a day shows a culpable indifference to the lives of citizens, and i& a scandal to the administration. When men assume the public rule, they must accept the consequent responsibilities ; and had such catastrophe occurred, the Defence Minister would have found it hard to wash his hands from the blood of citizens.

But the mere placing of a sei'geant's guard over the magazine does not remove the peril. All such stores are guarded, and yet ignition occurs ; and the citizens have reason to hearbily endorse, and to await with anxiety, the result of the request made by his Honor the Superintendent to the Defence Minister. He says: —" I " would further ask you seriously to " consider whether a magazine of gun- " powder should be permitted to exist " in the heart of a populous city like " Auckland. In my opinion it should " not, and prompt measures should " be taken for the removal of the pow- " der now stored there, which is suffi- " cient, through a moment's careless- " ness or accident, to lay the wbole " city in ruins."

The thanks of the people are due to our vigilaut Superintendent, and also to the City Board for their action in this matter ; and we trust that pressure from neither one nor the other will cease till this engine of death ia taken away from our midst. Where our powder magazines should be situated, is, perhaps, a difficult question; they are undesirable neighbours anywhere j but certainly neither in the centre of the city, nor yet within the precincts of a crowded gaol should their existence be tolerated. Explosives in bulk should never be al-

lowed to enter the city, and the passage of dray-loads of gunpowder up Quecn-strcpt, /an 'route to any magazine, ; however far _ removed frora-the city wpuld be perilous in the extreme. The proper site is such that vessels bearing gunpowder could discharge either directly or byboats ; so that a magazine should either be afloat in a sheltered position of our waters, or built on. the beach, under some of our overhanging cliffs. In such position, selected in the direction of Parnell or Dedwood, provision would be made against danger in the extension of settlement; but, of all positions, the best would be under the cliffs of the North Shore. Easily approached from the shipping, not too far from the city, with the overhanging cliffs behind as a protection to population, however near or dense, a site might be selected for a magazine of gunpowder and other explosives, for mercantile purposes, available for all time to come. It is true that, in a military sense, the situation across water would be inadvisable; but military stores should not be housed with merchandise; and in all the country round no situation in every sense so suitable for an arsenal could be found as the crater of Mount Eden. So near the city, and capable of being made really a place of strength, Mount Eden will yet be an Acropolis to our Southern Corinth; while at the present moment the bottom of its crater affords a position of perfect security for a magazine of military stores, if required. It is not for want of other more suitable localities that this deadly mine is in our midst, and now that military rule haa ceased, and the voice of the citizens is omnipotent, we- trust that pressure will not cease until the magazines have been removed to a place of safety.